Contemplating Clouds
by Tehan.au
Summary: Apathetic Occlumency teacher twisting your mind out of shape? Never fear, there's a charming young girl in the year below to twist it back in the opposite direction. Just hope it doesn't snap.
1. Chapter 1

Hi FFN kiddies. Someone on IRC brought up Harry/Luna and bemoaned the sad state of the ship, and I decided to have a stab at it. Turned out alright, I think. Shout-outs to the entire DLP crew, especially the IRCholes. Especially INBN for the title and Syao for some canon-picking.

---

**Chapter 1**

---

Harry all but stumbled down the main road of Hogsmeade, barely paying any attention to the usually fascinating storefronts. He had just had his first two Occlumency lessons that week, and he felt like his brain had been put through the wringer.

Hermione and Ron were trailing a short distance behind him, watching him with concern and holding a whispered conversation that he couldn't be bothered to eavesdrop on. No doubt they were discussing his constant state of fatigue, with Ron bad-mouthing Snape and Hermione quoting books she had read about exhaustion. He loved them, he really did, but they got a little bit predictable after a while.

He stopped suddenly, almost smiling in amusement as Hermione and Ron overtook him, embroiled in an argument over whether the profanities Ron was using were really appropriate to be applied to a teacher. They managed to get a couple meters past him before noticing and looking around, finally finding Harry behind them.

Naturally, it was Hermione that spoke up first. "Harry, are you alright?"

He stifled a grimace. No, he wasn't. His mind was still aching after a couple nights of mental gymnastics, and he had two nights a week to look forward to for the rest of the year. But instead he just said, "I'm fine. Look, you two go on ahead. You might as well have fun together."

It normally wouldn't have worked - they would have trailed after Harry all day if they had to - but the possibilities that he hinted at with 'together' did the trick. Harry might not be an expert in the field of relationships, but he knew there was some sort of chemistry bubbling between his two best friends that they were keen to investigate. The two of them shared a significant look before Hermione pulled Ron off along the street, probably towards some pub or cafe for a tête-à-tête.

Harry just stood there in the road, considering his next move. He wanted quiet, above all else. Somewhere he could let his sort-of-but-not-quite-headache fade without being bothered by anyone he knew. Which pretty much ruled out all of Hogwarts, most of the cafes in Hogsmeade, the Three Broomsticks... ah.

Harry turned down a side street and headed towards the Hog's Head.

---

Harry's entrance into the dirty pub broke the silence, and all heads inside - most of them shrouded by hoods or just darkness - turned towards him. Normally this would have been intimidating, but Harry just shot them all a dirty look before turning towards the barkeep, who for some reason was not looking at Harry. Instead, he was looking up a staircase in the corner with a look of mild confusion. He turned to look at Harry and blinked, before apparently coming to a realization and nodding him towards the staircase he had been watching. Not in the mood to question this unexpected offer of sanctuary, Harry just nodded and walked up the stairs, through the sitting room and into an open doorway, apparently leading to a disused conference room.

He paused halfway through the door, contemplating the sight in front of him. On the other side of the small room, across from a small conference table, was a small blonde girl in Ravenclaw robes, apparently engaged in a staring contest with another young blonde girl in a painting hung on the wall.

In his current state, anyone not sharing a house with him wouldn't have been recognised, but this particular individual was more memorable than most. "Luna?"

The girl started and turned, staring at him with her silvery eyes, as behind her the girl in the painting assumed a smug expression. Perhaps it really was a staring contest. "Harry?"

"What are you doing in here?"

Luna scrunched up her forehead in thought. "Talking to you. Oh, wait, I see. I'm visiting her." She gestured towards the girl in the painting, who gave Harry a shy smile.

Harry walked over next to Luna and inspected the painting. It was an oil painting, slightly worn but well cared for, and the girl inside was standing in front of a stone wall and wearing slightly old-fashioned clothes - although it was always hard to tell when magical fashion was involved. The girl squirmed slightly under his scrutiny. Next to him, Luna continued on. "She can't talk like other portraits. I don't think she gets to see many people, either. I don't doubt that Aberforth downstairs knows more about her, but he won't tell me. I think he's happy that she gets visitors, though."

Harry essayed a wave, and the girl blushed and waved back. Something about her reminded him of someone, but he shrugged it off, and instead sat on the edge of the table and leaned backwards until he was lying across it.

"Harry?" Luna's head drifted into his field of view. "Are you alright?"

If anyone could keep a secret, it was Luna. And besides, although he didn't like the thought, if she told anyone they would probably write it off as more of Looney's ramblings. "Occlumency lessons with Snape. Mind's all twisted up."

A frown crossed Luna's normally placid face. "You shouldn't spend too much time with him. With hair like that, he'd be utterly riddled with nargles. That's why he's so grouchy all the time." She clambered on top of the table and sat cross-legged next to Harry's head, still peering down at him.

"Really?" Harry pondered that tidbit for a moment. "It would make sense, actually. What exactly are nargles, though?"

And she told him. She told him about their diet, preferred living conditions, breeding habits, tips for avoiding them, and how they were currently being used by the Rotfang Conspiracy to give their operatives the sour disposition they needed. And Harry just lay there and listened, in the dark but surprising clean room, with the strange, mute girl in the painting listening in. And the more he listened, the more it began to make sense.

Luna was just starting to describe her illicit campaign to burn off all the mistletoe on the school grounds to stop the nargle population boom every Christmas when Harry realized that his brain had somehow un-crimped itself... and that it was gone half six. At least.

"Ah, Luna? Aren't we supposed to be back at the school by six?"

Luna stopped halfway through her recitation of how various flame charms reacted to mistletoe (including one memorable occasion where the spell spread to half of the host tree before being quenched by hasty aguamenti charms) and glanced around the windowless room. "I think so. Why? Is that soon?"

"I think it's already passed, to be honest."

"Well, let's get going then." She was nothing if not pragmatic. Hermione would be panicking over getting in trouble, and Ron would be complaining about getting detention, but Luna just ignored the possibility. It was rather relaxing, to be honest.

The two of them climbed off the table and out of the room (with a farewell wave to the girl in the portrait), Luna smiling at the barkeep on the way out, who returned it with a distant look in his eye. It was a far cry from the grouch that had served the first DA meeting.

"Like I said before," commented Luna, once they had left the pub and were on their way towards Hogwarts, "Aberforth likes it when she gets visitors."

---

"MISTER POTTER!" a familiar voice greeted the two of them as they reached the gates. McGonagall. Damn. "It's almost seven o'clock! Where have you been?!"

"Sorry, Professor," interjected Luna before Harry had a chance to even open his mouth. "I was just telling him about nargles."

This stopped her in her tracks. She looked from one student to the other, before casting a look behind her to Professor Flitwick. "I... see. Get to your common rooms and we'll hear no more about it, but you two should keep better track of the time in the future."

Harry just stood there, slightly dumbfounded at his head of house's change of attitude, before Luna's tug on his arm pulled him back to reality and they continued towards the castle at a fast pace.

McGonagall and Flitwick stood there in silence, watching the two of them, before McGonagall spoke. "'Telling him about nargles'? Is that what they're calling it these days, Filius?"

"I stopped trying to keep up years ago, to be honest."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two, yo. Shout-out to Vasheh's kitteh.

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**Chapter 2**

---

Every Occlumency lesson Harry took seemed to push his mind ever-so-slightly further out of shape. He was currently slouched in an armchair in front of the fire, staring up at the roof, Ron and Hermione sitting on the lounge next to him.

"Really, guys, I'm fine. It's just a headache. It'll go away eventually."

Hermione shook her head. "You've been like this since last night. That's hardly normal, Harry."

"She's right, mate. Every time you have an... extra lesson with that git Snape, it takes longer for the headache to go away."

Harry grimaced. "You've got a point. It definitely feels like I've got four extra lessons worth beating into my head."

Hermione and Ron shared a worried look. Ron spoke up first. "Er, Harry? You've had six of 'em."

Harry tilted his head to look at Ron, his mind firing up. "Well... I suppose it only feels like four." He pushed himself out of his chair and headed towards the bedrooms, the beginnings of an idea forming in his mind. "I'm going to go for a walk. Clear my head." He shot Ron an apologetic look. "Ron, have you done any of that Divination homework we got yesterday?"

Harry escaped up the dormitory stairs as Hermione rounded on Ron, Divination textbooks seemingly materialising in her hands. He'd make it up to his friend later, somehow. A few moments later he was back down the stairs, across the common room and away.

---

Well, maybe not quite away. Five minutes later he was still outside the portrait hole, squinting at the tiny moving dots on the Marauder's Map (which was not doing his head much good), the Fat Lady looking on curiously. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find a needle with small print in a very large haystack. I don't suppose you have a magnifying glass on you?" He looked up at the painting, now containing one rather amused Common Room guardian. "Oh, right. Never mind, then."

A minute later, he had located the tiny dot labelled Luna Lovegood just at the outskirts of the Forest, and was on his way.

---

After Harry made the long trek from the top of Gryffindor Tower to the forest, he found Luna frowning up at a rather tall tree. "Hi, Luna. What's wrong?"

Luna's frown turned into a slight smile, but she didn't shift her gaze. "There was a bowtruckle nest here before, but now I can't find it. I was trying to teach them tricks." She turned to look at him. "Maybe they migrated. I'll leave these here and see if they come back."

And with that she produced a small glass container from her pocket and emptied it at the base of the tree. A small torrent of woodlice poured out, all of them rolled up. Luna squatted down and watched as a few of the bolder ones unrolled and scrambled up the tree.

The two of them stayed there for a minute, Luna silently watching the progress of the bugs with Harry looking on, bemused but semi-interested, from over her shoulder. As the last woodlouse uncurled and fled (with an encouraging prod from Luna's wand) Luna stood, twirled, and headed towards the lake with a smiling Harry in tow.

---

Five minutes later found the two of them lying side-by-side on a slight crest overlooking the lake, looking up at the sky. Luna was describing Snorcacks using the clouds - the head of that one over there, with a body sort of a mix between that one and that one, and a foot kind of shaped like that. The mental image being constructed had only a passing resemblance to anything normally found in nature, but Harry was enjoying himself nonetheless.

Sometime after, Luna had trailed off, unable to locate in the sky anything sufficiently resembling a crumpled horn. Harry had spotted a cloud shaped somewhat like the radishes Luna used as earrings, and was idly pondering her choices in jewellery, when she suddenly spoke up. "Ever wonder what it would be like to be a cloud?"

Harry meditated on this. He had, on occassion, imagined what it would be like to be at around the same altitude of a cloud, if only for the view. But putting himself in the mind of the cloud itself? That was a new one. "Er, no, not really."

"Try it. It's fun."

So he did. With Luna's voice in the background, giving him her perspective of life as a cloud, he looked up at and attempted to tap into the mind of the radish-earring-shaped cloud as it scudded its way across the sky.

"Imagine flying over the country, all the fields little patches, all of the forests like patches of grass, and the cities like those model towns you can buy in muggle toy stores. Some of those are incredibly detailed, you know." Harry had closed his eyes and was watching the mental images invoked. "The cloud, yes. Just floating along, pushed by the wind, not having to worry about where you're going or when you'll get there. And you look down, and there's this tiny little castle next to a puddle." And Harry actually could see Hogwarts from above, there was the Astronomy Tower, there was Gryffindor Tower, and he was positive that that window right there was that of his dorm room. "And on a hill, there's two people in robes lying down, looking up at you..." He could see the two of them now, Harry with his eyes closed, Luna somehow looking directly at him as a cloud. "And you imagine what it would be like if you were one of them."

Guh. He scrunched his eyes shut as his mind seemingly spun on its axis. He was Harry imagining himself as the cloud imagining himself as Harry...

He risked opening one eye a crack. It seemed he was back at ground level. He gave the cloud a wary glance, before turning his head to look at Luna. She had rolled her head to the side and was watching him with a mysterious little half-smile. Something in her eye gave Harry the impression that she knew exactly what he had just experienced.

"Fun, isn't it?"

Of course it wasn't... well... maybe it was, just a bit. It was like the first time he had tried a Wronski Feint, years ago. It was scary as hell and he almost threw up at the end, but a few minutes later he was eager to try it again.

He smiled back at her and nodded wordlessly before glancing down. At some point the two of them had linked hands. Harry hadn't even noticed.

---

The two were on their way back to the top floor. Luna had linked her arm with Harry, at least partly because his mind still felt like all the thoughts were being routed through a point quite some distance above his head. The net result was a noticable delay between thought and deed.

"What are you doing tomorrow at Hogsmeade, Harry?" Luna asked out of the blue.

"Tomorrow? Er... you mean Saturday?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Well... I think I've got a date with Cho."

Luna turned to look at him, her eyes filled with curiousity. "You think?"

"Well, I thought I was talking to her about the next DA meeting, and then somehow I had rejected her, and I ended up agreeing to take her on a date to Hogsmeade. It was a bit strange, to be honest."

"Ah," intoned Luna, nodding thoughtfully. "I thought a Wrackspurt had got her, but it can't be that, I checked her trunk. She hasn't been quite right since the end of last year."

"Oh..."

"She lost one champion, so she probably thinks she needs a new one. But she misses Cedric, not a champion." Luna's eyes had become strangely focussed on Harry's own. "Be careful, Harry. She has too many emotions building up, and they'll have to be released soon, no matter how. Make sure you aren't in the way."

"I will," he agreed, before smiling. "Besides, she's DA. We look out for each other, don't we?"

Luna smiled at this as her eyes refocussed on her own private world again. "Yes, we do."

---

Pomona Sprout watched from the greenhouse window as two figures walked past, highlighted in the setting sun. They were walking so close they were practically wearing each other's cloaks. She'd say they were leaning on each other if she didn't know better. And you didn't have to be a herbologist to see the grass stuck to their backs.

Well, well. First they were back more than an hour past curfew from Hogsmeade after they had lost track of time nargling... she wasn't completely sure what exactly constituted a nargle, but she could probably hazard a guess or two. And now they had been out on the grounds together until sundown getting their backs all grassy.

Pomona chuckled to herself as she returned to potting the Tentacula cuttings. Minerva and Filius were going to _love _this little bit of gossip.


	3. Chapter 3

More, with a side-order of longer. Shout-outs to Marie for motivation (threats of bodily harm if more is not written count as motivation, right?) and Trag, for general awesomeness. Yes, it's a word.

---

**Chapter 3**

---

Harry Potter, the famous boy-who-lived and reportedly delusional madman, was going on a date. What fun, he reflected, as he trudged down the stairs towards the gate. Knowing his luck, it would be a fiasco.

He frowned to himself. No, that was a stupid way of putting it. He was spending a bright and sunny Hogsmeade trip with a fellow DA member. Even if it did turn out to be too awkward, he had an excuse to end it early - Hermione wanted to meet him for something at the Three Broomsticks, after all.

He was in much better spirits about the whole thing by the time he had reached the line at the gates, greeting Cho with a smile. She looked fairly normal, but under closer scrutiny there was a strange tenseness to her... as if she had too much energy bottled up. Luna was right.

The two of them greeted each other with awkward hellos, and the conversation turns, inevitably, towards Quidditch as they made their way through the line and towards Hogsmeade.

"Do you miss it?"

"Well, yeah, but Ginny seems alright at it. I can still fly, at least."

Cho gave him an confused look. "I thought the Toad had taken your broom?"

Harry's mind flitted to the cloud he had watched yesterday, and for a brief second he was looking at a series of grassy hills, tiny sheep looking like miniature clouds dotted around. Seems his cloud had drifted south. Without thinking, he murmured, "you don't always need a broom to fly."

Cho just looked at him with a strange expression, before shrugging it off. She seemed about to continue on the subject when the two of them were subjected to a drive-by berating from a group of Slytherin girls lead by Pansy, including unfavourable comparisons between him and Cedric.

"Now that's just in poor taste," Harry commented after the pack had passed, frowning at their backs. How best to undo this? Ah. "Maybe it's jealousy. Perhaps Pansy has a thing for you."

Cho just gaped at him, any anger or embarrassment from the Slytherins' comments erased by this suggestion. She shook her head to clear her mind at the thought and cast her eyes around, looking for something to change the subject to. Instead she caught a glimpse of the rainclouds overhead. "We should get inside before it rains. D... d'you want to get a coffee?"

Harry followed her gaze and inspected the sky. Those were not friendly-looking clouds. "Good idea. Three Broomsticks?"

"Actually, I know a nice little place..." And with that she led him off down a sidestreet, across an alley, and into a small, cramped little teashop.

It was horrendously cutesy. Harry paused halfway through the door and just gaped at it. Frills, bows, confetti... and cherubs. One of the little buggers flitted over to greet them, caught Harry's alarmed expression, and did an abrupt about-face. Instead, they were greeted by the crafter of this abomination, Madam Puddifoot herself, who bustled them over to a table next to a steamed-up window. Uncomfortably, they were also next to Roger Davies and a blonde Hufflepuff, who were currently carrying out detailed inspections of each other's tonsils using only their tongues. Ye gods.

Harry gave the cherubs a long, uncertain look - something about them seemed off to him. They seemed to be avoiding his eye. He shrugged it off - at least he wouldn't have to spend the next day or two picking confetti out of his hair. He turned away from them to catch their coffee arriving.

Well, this was awkward. They didn't really have anything to talk about that they hadn't covered at DA. Well, Harry had something, at least.

"Do you mind if we swing past the Three Broomsticks around midday? Hermione asked me to meet her there."

"You're meeting Hermione Granger? Today?"

"Yeah, I think she's up to something for DA." He thought for a moment. "She got a letter this morning, and told me to meet her just after she read it. I think she'd be out with Ron if he wasn't training for the next match."

This seemed to derail Cho's train of thought. "Oh. Hermione and Ron are going out?"

"They're doing something that requires a lot of time together. Going out is my best guess."

Another awkward silence filled the air. Cho glanced over at the next table a few times (where Roger and his lady friend had thus far failed to devour each other's faces, but were still trying with unabated enthusiasm) and seemed about to comment, but decided against it. Instead she cast her eyes over the teashop and murmured, "I came in here with Cedric last year."

Harry's first reaction was one of horror, but then Luna's warnings from the other day started to make sense. She lost one champion, so she probably thinks she needs a new one. But she misses Cedric, not a champion.

The poor girl was trying to replace Cedric with Harry by doing all the same things, but then everything reminded her of Cedric... which would explain the teary kiss, and her bringing up Cedric now.

Harry didn't know what to do, but then he remembered how he had replied to Luna's warning. She's DA. We look out for each other... And he looked over to Cho, who was watching for his reaction through misty eyes, and could tell that only the fact that she was in public was keeping her from bursting into tears.

So he stood, took her hand, and gently pulled her out of her chair and into an embrace. She stiffened, surprised, before relaxing and clutching at him. A moment later she started to shake with silent sobs.

With some difficulty, he extricated a galleon from his pocket and dropped it on the table. He started guiding Cho to the door, which was being held open by a sympathetic-looking Madam Puddifoot.

---

Outside the sunny day had turned anything but and rain had just started to patter down, but Harry ignored it, gently guiding Cho through the streets and towards Hogwarts. Just as they reached the outskirts of the town, Cho's sobs started to recede. "I'm sorry Harry, it's just..."

"...you miss Cedric," Harry finished.

They walked in silence for a minute more. "How did it happen? Did he say anything... anything?"

Harry really didn't want to remember that day, but he figured he owed it to Cedric. "We grabbed the Cup together. It was a portkey, we ended up in a graveyard..." He swallowed. "We looked at each other, and he said, uh... 'wands out, d'you reckon?' Then someone yelled the killing curse, and it hit Cedric." He shook his head. "Didn't feel a thing. Probably didn't even have time to realize a killing curse was flying before he... before." She started sobbing again, out loud this time, and Harry just continued to hold her, slowly guiding them back towards Hogwarts.

---

The rest of the trip passed without further conversation, and Cho stopped them at the castle entrance and pulled away. Her eyes were red and she looked far from happy, but she looked less, well, tense than she had all year. She gave Harry a half-hearted smile. "This didn't go so well, did it?"

"Oh, I don't know," he said thoughtfully. "You never really had a chance to get all of that off your chest. It could have gone much worse."

Cho's almost-smile twitched and she briefly hugged Harry - this time more affectionate than comfort-seeking. "You go back to Hogsmeade, see what Hermione's up to."

"You'll be alright?"

"Marietta's upstairs. I'll be fine." He turned to leave. "Um, Harry? Thanks."

He looked back and smiled, his expression slightly distant. "Like I said to Luna, we're DA. We look out for each other." And with that he turned and left.

"...he said to Luna?" Cho murmered to herself as she started climbing stairs, still sniffling slightly. She had heard a rumour that Harry and Luna had been spending some time together, and had dismissed it. Maybe there was something to it after all.

---

Harry hit the door of the Three Broomsticks at a speed that suggested anyone that had attempted to go through them the other way at that point in time would have become and unfortunate and very lonely statistic. The umbrella he had taken from the ever-present pile in the Hall could only cover so much, especially after the wind picked up. At that point he looked like he had waded half-way into the lake before thinking better of it.

"Harry!"

Hermione appeared next to him, eyeing him concernedly. "You're late, you know, and completely soaked. And where's Cho?"

"I took her back to Hogwarts. Apparently it brought up memories of Cedric for her..."

"Oh dear... is she okay?"

"She should be. Marietta can take care of Cho better than I can."

Hermione had led him over to a table tucked into a corner booth, almost out of sight of the greater part of the tavern. Inside it were two familiar faces; one welcome, one anything but.

Luna and Rita Skeeter.

He ignored the latter and gave the former a warm smile, who returned it with a questioning look at the door. Harry shook his head and glanced in the general direction of Hogwarts. Luna nodded in understanding and returned to reading a copy of the Quibbler.

Harry took a seat at the table opposite Rita, giving her a mistrustful look. "What's this about?"

"That's what I'd like to know. Ask your manipulative little friend."

Hermione shot Rita a withering look "Well, Rita here is going to write an article about You-Know-Who being back, and Luna's father is going to publish it."

Hermione's timing was perfect; Rita had just taken a long sip of her drink as she heard what she was to be doing, and sent a fine spray of it through the air, barely missing Luna.

Harry resisted the urge to headbutt the table. This was not going to be fun.

---

Two hours later and the interview was finally finished. Recalling that night was bad enough, but being badgered mercilessly for every minor detail elevated it to a form of torture. After the first five minutes, Luna had sought out Harry's hand with her own under the table, without any indication to anyone watching that she was doing anything other than placidly sucking Gillywater off her cocktail onion.

Luna and Harry left soon after, Hermione and Rita barely noticing, too caught up in their verbal duel over the more florid phrases and leaps of logic that Rita's quill had made.

They paused at the door, just looking at the rain pouring down. Harry silently offered the umbrella to Luna, who took it with a thoughtful expression. A long moment of silent thought later, she walked out into the rain with the umbrella unopened, spreading her arms and smiling up at the sky. She turned and gestured for Harry to follow.

Well, it wasn't like he wasn't already soaked. He walked out into the street, flinching under the heavy rain at first but shrugging it off. Luna had opened the umbrella and balanced it top-first in a puddle and had was looking up at an overhanging branch with her wand drawn. A couple of quick Diffindos and fixing charms later, and two fairly straight section of branch were fixed to the handle of the wand.

Luna took a step back and gave the... thing being built a critical look, before shrugging off her robe to fix it to the newly-attached crossbars. The fact that she was wearing shorts and a white blouse underneath elevated this creation to the greatest invention in the history of magic in Harry's mind. Luna turned to Harry with a smile that would have been worrying on anyone else - equal parts thrill of creation and mischief.

"Levitate it."

Harry blinked, but complied. "_Wingardium Leviosa_," he murmured, and the umbrella lifted slightly into the air. Luna examined it, giving it a gentle poke, before shaking her head.

"No, more than that."

Harry had been glancing around, finally noticing that bystanders had become spectators, but shifted his attention back. He gathered up his focus and narrowed his eyes at the thing. "_WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA_!"

Luna gave it another poke, then a harder prod. It drifted a few centimetres but otherwise stayed still. She grinned and reached over to Harry, grasping his arm and pulling him over to the umbrella, pausing, as it were, on the precipice. She lifted her foot, and Harry obligingly mirrored the movement. Together, they hopped into the umbrella.

It dipped slightly, but otherwise stayed stable, the material of the umbrella seemingly unconcerned with their weight. Luna sat in the umbrella, which by now was almost full of rainwater, and pulled Harry down next to her.

They sat there in the floating umbrella-turned-bathtub with a handle-turned-sail, Luna just smiling at Harry. It occurred to him, between glances at the growing crowd, that this wasn't going to do his protestations of sanity any good, but by Merlin he was going to see what this girl was about to do even if he ended up in St Mungo's afterwards. He returned her smile with one of his own, and followed her gaze as she shifted it to the sail. She lifted her wand and, with the mix of relish and eagerness usually reserved to those flicking a switch with one end connected to a corpse/jigsaw puzzle hybrid and the other to a lightning rod, whispered "_Depulso_".


	4. Chapter 4

My muse likes to torment me. Most of this was written when I really should have been on my way to work. Lucky my boss wasn't around to see when I arrived.

**---**

**Chapter Four  
**

**---**

With a sudden lurch, the umbrella boat took off down the street at an alarming speed, almost ploughing down one of the bystanders who hadn't realised fast enough that _Depulso _was a banishing charm. Luna quickly tucked her wand behind her ear and grasped the lower of the crossbeams, turning it from side to side experimentally, her grin only widening when the boat swerved from side to side in time with her movements.

They shot past the storefronts of Hogsmeade, passer-bys scattering before them. Harry was sure he recognised a few faces staring at the two as they sped past. In moments they had reached the outskirts of the town and were heading up the path to the school, barely slowed down. It made sense when he thought about it - the Levitation charm was carrying all the weight, and the only friction left to slow down the Banishing charm was the umbrella spike digging slightly into the surface of the road, leaving a shallow furrow behind them. Luna swerved the umbrella off the road and pulled back on the crossbeam, resulting in the umbrella tilting backwards, the onrushing air meeting the umbrella's top, slowing them dramatically. They stopped with a jolt as Luna released the crossbeam, the umbrella wobbling back into an upright position. Harry turned to look at the village, now in the distance and the ground floating shortly before the umbrella.

"Luna... did you just think of that then?"

Luna grinned at him, clearly extremely proud of herself. "Sure did!"

"It's... it's fantastic!" Well, Harry was a bit of a speed freak after all, and his broom had been locked away for quite a while by this point.

Luna's grin widened, her grey eyes sparkling as they gazed out from under her soaked hair, and Harry reached over and gave her a quick, impulsive hug. He turned to the sail and drew his own wand, not noticing Luna's surprised expression, remembering the lessons he learned banishing charms in. Professor Flitwick had dedicated a few lessons to fine control of the charm, practising with pillows because the spell could have some serious kinetic strength behind it if misused or miscalculated.

"_Depulso_." The Umbrella cruised forward gently, propelled by Harry's deliberately weak spell. "_Depulso_!" They shot forward at about a running speed. Harry unconsciously mirrored Luna's habit by tucking his own wand behind his ear and took control of the crossbeams, turning them back up the path and tearing towards Hogwarts.

---

They blew past Filch who was watching the gate to keep track of returning students, Luna giving him a merry wave as Harry concentrated on squeezing the umbrella through the relatively confined space. They sped across the Quidditch pitch, causing what looked like Angelina and Katie to smack into each other when they stopped their practice to stare. They started running out of momentum around the edge of the Forest, which gave them the opportunity to call out greetings to Hagrid, who was tending to his garden under an umbrella of his own; he just waved back with a bemused smile.

They reached the Lake, and Harry exchanged glances with Luna, who nodded. He steered out over the shallows, and although the spike kicking up an arc of water behind them, the charm kept them above water. He gave the sail an extra Depulso and zig-zagged across the surface of the water, grinning at the speed. It might not be as fast as a broom, but it seemed a hell of a lot faster with the ground a foot or two below and the water splashing up around you. He looked over at Luna, watching her lean over the side and trail her fingers in the water, and smiled. He would have to find a way to thank her for all of this.

Eventually they ran out of momentum, and Harry let it slow down and drift, until they were left bobbing in the middle of the Lake. The rain had slacked off to the point where they were only assaulted by the occasional raindrop, and most of the water that had filled the umbrella had sloshed out during their rapid tour of Hogwarts' grounds.

Luna was bending over the side again, staring down at something below the surface. Harry moved alongside her and followed her gaze, staring down into the deeps. The water was mostly transparent despite the rain, and, if you squinted your eyes a bit, you could kinda see the bottom. Or maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him. The Second Task last year had taught Harry how damn deep the Lake was.

Luna suddenly broke the silence. "I think the merfolk are acting as spies." Harry smiled. This was the Luna he knew and... well, let's stick with just knew for the moment. "The Lake is connected to the ocean by underground rivers, so the mermaids would make perfect spies, and they train plimpy to deliver messages. But Professor Dumbledore convinced them to stay neutral, so they don't tell who they're reporting to very much at all. Rather clever of them, isn't it?"

And so it went. Luna put forth the theory that the Second Task was based in the Lake to provide Dumbledore with a way to hold negotiations with the merfolk without raising suspicion. Harry described what he saw of the merfolk village, and the contrast between their voices above and below water, and passed on the fact that Dumbledore knew mermish - a fact that Luna found rather interesting. Luna made a few guesses on who the merfolk could by spying for, from the Rotfang Conspiracy, to a cabal of American magicians trying to branch into Europe, to various French families ensuring that their children were being cared for in Hogwarts.

They continued back and forth like this, ignorant of the fact that Madam Umbridge had seen part of their joyride around the grounds, and was even then trying to figure out who was flaunting her authority and punish them. She was told by Flitwick that Summoning Charms wouldn't work on something that far out into the Lake, and by Hagrid that the Squid wouldn't take kindly to a boat in it's lake at this time of year, and from Professor Sinistra that every telescope in the school was currently being held hostage by Peeves. Peeves, for his part, was currently standing guard over the telescope storage closet, momentarily obedient in exchange for the promise to sneak him into Umbridge's office at a later date.

Harry and Luna remained ignorant to this campaign of subtle deception being waged in their name, their conversation having drifted into Harry recounting the adventures of Fourth Year and Luna putting her spin on the events. An alternate solution to the First Task would have been to point out the fake egg to the Dragon - this would involve learning the secret language of the Dragons, true, but it was an alternative none-the-less. Luna made a mental note aloud to look through her back-issues of the Quibbler to find more information on the subject. For the Third Task, the Sphinx's presence was another negotiation obscured by the tournament, although this one was between the Sphinx and Madame Maxime.

She didn't have anything to say about what happened after Harry and Cedric took the cup (the possibility of stopping his recollection as that happened didn't even occur to Harry) and instead gave Harry a prolonged hug, the two of them having unconsciously snuggled up to each other to ward against the combined chill of wet clothes and fading daylight. Afterwards, their conversation turned to lighter topics, Quidditch and nargles and the like, but Luna did not relinquish her grip on Harry.

---

Some time later, after Umbridge had stormed off in a huff and Hagrid had spread the identity of the umbrella joyriders to a select few, the umbrella was hooked with a skilfully-cast summoning charm and carefully pulled across the surface of the lake, the Levitation charm half-failed. Minerva and Filius, by the glow of their wands, looked down on the two adolescents dozing inside, arms wrapped around each other, Luna's head nestled between Harry's head and shoulder. They shared a silent conversation with a glance and took the two to their respective dormitories with gentle _Mobilicorpus _charms, before meeting in the staff room for a smallish glass of firewhisky apiece and to reminisce on students passed, another dark-haired boy and a certain green-eyed redhead chief among them.


	5. Chapter 5

To quote one of my recent reviews, **26-MONTH HIATUS YO.** No such thing as a dead story, just one that hasn't yet been fully put to paper.

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**Chapter 5**

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"Damn it, Potter! I said clear your mind, not twist it into a knot! Would you at least attempt to control your incompetence for one night?"

Harry just glared at the professor on the other side of the desk while rubbing his temples. Another Monday, another migraine. At least Snape seemed to be suffering as much as he was. He caught the Professor's eye, and had to fight the sudden urge to smile. He'd been putting up with headaches like this since first year. Snape's legilimency-induced headaches seemed to be an entirely new phenomenon for him. He was willing to see who cracked first.

"Bah! Get out of my sight."

Harry absconded with a decade of Dursley disappearing practice behind him before Snape changed his mind. He was free! And earlier than usual, too. Free for, well... two days. And it would probably take that long for this headache to disappear on it's own.

With a sigh, he started the long trek back to Gryffindor tower. Trudging from the dank basements to the soaring towers... he was sure there was a metaphor in there somewhere.

---

Damn that brat. The Headmaster wanted him to teach the boy Occlumency, and the Dark Lord wanted him to lay the boy's mind open for him. Both could be done - indeed, both were being done in one fell swoop. But that blasted Potterspawn had either invented a new form of Occlumency or had lost what could charitably be called his mind.

Oh, sure, he could claim to the Dark Lord that he had broken Potter's mind deliberately, and probably be rewarded for it, and since Dumbledore was avoiding the brat like the plague he could just say that the lessons were going as planned. But trying to steer his mind through Potter's fragmented thought processes was giving him one utter bastard of a headache. And he couldn't shake the feeling that some part of the brat knew this and was deliberately taking the twistiest route possible.

---

Harry paused on the fourth floor, glancing at his long-dead watch out of sheer habit. He had gotten out of Occlumency early enough that the library would still be open for a while yet. He had been meaning to find some more books to help him teach DA. That, and Hermione had been giving him oddly thoughtful looks since Saturday - the practicing Quidditch team had seen him and Luna blast past, and Ron had passed the story on to her - so maybe it wouldn't hurt to kill some time down here instead of heading back to the tower.

After all, the last couple of times she had something like that expression on her face, he had ended up teaching an illegal class and being interviewed by Rita Skeeter. Not that those were necessarily bad, but his schedule was getting rather cramped as it was.

His mind made up, he turned away from the next staircase and headed along the corridor.

---

"So, after watching me outfly a Hungarian Horntail - only just mind you, I've still got the scar on my shoulder - this Orla girl gave you the money to buy a soft-toy version of it from Hogsmeade for her?"

"Yep."

"And she called it Harry."

"Mmhmm."

"And it's a she."

"Well, the dragon you outflew was a she."

"Of course. And she sleeps with it."

"Fairly sure she does."

"And we're supposed to be the mental ones?"

Luna just grinned in response to that, while the cuddly Horntail doll sprawled on her hair continued to eye him in a mildly unnerving manner. She had taken over a sizeable portion of one of the library's tables with a dizzying array of maps, open tomes and even an unrolled scroll. She had seemed surprised to see him, but had waved him over, clearing a spot on the table for him. His first question after greetings had been fairly predictable.

"Did you just finish a lesson with Snape? You seem less wound up than I would have thought."

"He ended it early. Seems I'm starting to give him a headache every bit as bad as the one he's been giving me. Makes it so much easier to cope with the headaches, knowing he's got one just as bad. Oh, and I remembered to keep my distance from his hair."

Luna beamed at him.

Harry gestured to the array of reading material scattered across the table. "So, what's the story behind all this?

"A bit of research. Then the Troll King got into the picture of the Dragon Tyrant, and they rolled into the maps while they were fighting. I lost track of them somewhere around Leeds." She eyed Northern England again before shrugging. "They'll find their way back after the Library closes, and they looked like they were having fun."

"Research?"

"Mm. Do you think Professor Flitwick would let me go to Jotunheimen in Norway instead of Hogsmeade next month?

"Probably not, unfortunately."

Luna nibbled her lip thoughtfully, running her eyes over one of the larger maps. "What about the central Pyrenees?"

"I don't think he'd go for that, either."

"No, I suppose not." She sighed. "I was trying to sort out a surprise for a friend. But it looks like it would take until after the holidays to do it right."

Harry ran an eye over the tomes spread across the table, trying to work out the surprise. /Territorial Claims of Magical Europe/, /Low Necklines in Low Heat, a Guide to Everyday Temperature Control/, /Sword and Wand: The Art of Combat for Gentleman Wizards/, /Subterranean Magical Ecosystems/...

"Well, why do you need something this big? You're good at surprising people. Shouldn't need to go through a lot of preparations for it. Besides, it would distract them from whatever the reason for the surprise is."

Luna considered his words, tilting her head to one side. "I suppose you're right. It wouldn't do to upstage the surprise. It would be better to keep it simple... in fact," her voice rose in sudden determination, "I think I'll do it now."

"Great!" smiled Harry, enjoying her enthusiasm. "Who's being surprised?"

---

**Author's Note: **If this cliffhanger doesn't shake my warm-and-fuzzy reputation, nothing will.


End file.
